CHANGE IN PLANS, FOLKS– MAKE SURE TO READ THIS:
Hey, there. Since our schedule today (and for the next few days) is rather messed up, second period doesn’t have much time in class to work on their infographic, which means they’ll need to focus on that for their homework tonight (5/2). Thus, I would like you to complete the assignment below by the start of class on WEDNESDAY (5/4), rather than the start of class tomorrow (5/3). Sorry for the confusion, guys– I wish I’d known about the bell schedule for today in advance, but I didn’t.
This evening, please review the following material on the Holocaust (or Shoah) as a continuation of our study of World War II:
After reviewing the material above, please listen to the following radio broadcast by journalist Edward R. Murrow on the liberation of Buchenwald in April of 1945. You will find that the sound quality is far from perfect– there are lots of hisses and pops and the whine of interference, as this is the actual recording from 1945. If you would like to, you can follow this transcript of the broadcast while you listen– but please do listen. Sometimes the tone of voice is just as important as the words themselves:
Liberation of Buchenwald, 15 April 1945, reported by Edward R. Murrow (CBS News)
In a thoughtful comment, please respond to the following prompts:
- Describe the events in Germany beginning in 1933 which led to the Final Solution. What was their purpose? How did these actions normalize discrimination?
- What were the conditions like in Buchenwald when Murrow and the American troops arrive? What sort of men did Murrow encounter in the camp? What do you think shocked Murrow the most about the experience? What shocked you the most about his description?
- At the end of the broadcast, Murrow tells his audience that “if [he] has offended [them] by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, [he’s] not in the least bit sorry.” What is Murrow’s tone when he delivers this line? (That is, how does he sound?)
- Murrow, as a journalist, believed that it was his job to make an argument– NOT to be a mere reporter of facts. What argument is he trying to make through this report? What does he want his listeners to feel, learn, and believe as a result of his work? Do you think that he achieved his goal? Why or why not?
Remember, normal commenting rules apply: one thoughtful comment which addresses all of the discussion points thoroughly will receive up to 95%, while you must comment and leave a response on someone else’s comment in order to earn full credit.
Ms. Galloway's AP World History 
Beginning in 1933, the Nazis began to rise to power in germany. Under Hitler’s regime, Many minorities began to fall under discrimination and execution, such as Jews, Slavs, Africans, Homosexuals, and more. Eventually, the Nazi powers captured and sent these minorities to concentration camps, where they died from starvation and gassing.
In one of these concentration camps, named Buchenwald, Murrow met German professors, prisoners, and officials of the camps. Many of them told Murrow that Buchenwald was the best of the concentration camps, some having had experience in others which were allegedly far worse. Murrow was shocked when he saw their cruel treatment of prisoners in person, especially the treatment of children. I was shocked the most that 60000 prisoners had dwindled to 20000 so quickly, but the treatment of women and children angered me far more.
Murrow stresses the word “mild” when he mentions his account at the end of the broadcast. His tone sounds somewhat sarcastic, as he did give a warning at the beginning of the broadcast. However, it also sounds angered, because he knows how much he saw and tried his hardest to censor it.
Murrow’s goal was to shed light on the cruel treatment of prisoners, and this is something he does extremely well. He goes into enough detail to sicken listeners without making it excruciating. In addition, he also evokes a feeling of anger toward the Nazi party and their cruelty.
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I like how you stated that Buchenwald was one of the best concentration camps out there, and then went on to describe how awful it was. The statement surely made others think what the conditions were like in concentration camps worse than Buchenwald. I also agree with how you felt about the treatment of women and children; it’s sad to hear about anyone starving to death, let alone a child who would’ve had their entire life ahead of them. It’s one thing to hear about the extremely harsh treatments at the camps, but I’m sure it’s an indescribable experience to see the terrible conditions in person.
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I like that you described Murrow’s account as sickening, yet not excruciating. This is something that I agree with, as he spares no detail with what he does recount, but there are also things that he refuses to speak of. I think that shows just how affected he was by his visit to Buchenwald, and while he wishes for the American people to know the truth, he believes that there are some atrocities that would be better left to the imaginiation.
However, I interpret the description of Buchenwald as the “best” concentration camp. I did not get the impression that it meant other camps were far worse with treatment, and had higher amounts of deaths, but rather the opposite. I saw it as stating that Buchenwald was incredibly good in, well, being awful. As for the persecution and murder of Jews, it was one of the most efficient, and most fulfilled the German sentiment of disgust towards minorities at that time.
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*”I interpret that line a bit differently” is what I meant, but realized I didn’t finish that sentence.
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Abbey Milwicz
After the Nazi party rose to power, they immediately started to target minority groups in the area such as Jews, Slavs, Africans, and homosexuals. The Nuremberg Laws were created in 1935, placing restrictions on what Jewish Germans were allowed and not allowed to do.By 1938, the Nazi party started a series of pogroms against the Jewish community which destroyed many Jewish businesses and synagogues, and killed thousands of people. Jews that did not emigrate during this period were placed into ghettos or concentration camp, which was followed by the Final Solution.
When Murrow and the American soldiers reached Buchenwald, the conditions were very bad. Most men were starving, many had terrible infections, and a good portion had no drive to live. Rations were very limited, and work was grueling. Thousands were dead and many were dying. Murrow was most likely surprised by large number of deaths and how many people had survived in such bad conditions for so long. Personally, I was surprised by the size of the rations and how such healthy, plump Germans were so close by, yet felt no pity.
When Murrow said he’s not sorry for offending anyone, his tone was somber but distant as he knows hearing the story was nothing compared to seeing in the camp in real life. He’s not regretful at all because his description of the camp was not nearly as bad as the camp itself and he only wishes to make people aware of the horrors the people had to suffer through.
Murrow’s argument was that the actions of the Nazi’s were almost inhuman and completely horrifying. He wants listeners to feel the horrified and disgusted with what was being done to the minority groups, and he wanted the audience to know how grateful the people of the camp were with the troops sent to liberate them. I believe Murrow achieved his goals because the way he described the liberation made me feel disgust towards the way the Nazis treated the people, and I’m sure many others felt the same way when listening to his report.
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I like how you described Murrow’s tone when he said he was not sorry for offending anyone. He wants the listener to feel the same disgust that he felt about Buchenwald. But he knew that the only way for people to experience how horrific the camp was to see it but he knew that would scare the media.
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Abbey I totally agree with your statement on how he was surprised due to the horrible conditions and cruel actions committed by the Nazi’s. I mostly agree with your last paragraph about what he wanted the readers to feel because I do believe that since he was there he can only describe how horrible it was to listeners but his tone added emphasis to his argument in which yes he did achieve his goal and getting the audience to feel how he felt and believe what he believed. You go Abbey!
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I really like the way you described the way Murrow must have felt when liberating the minorities. I agree with your statements. The way the minority groups were treated was absolutely horrific and Murrow definitely effectively expressed his thoughts to listeners. Good job!
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I completely agree with your point of view, but what I like best is your description of Murrow’s tone. You chose the best way to show how he wanted to let us know that his words are not nearly as descriptive as being in the camps in person and trying to survive.
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I agree with the way you feel about the Nazis. I also felt disgust and a sense of hatred towards them because of their inhumane treatment towards the people in Buchenwald.
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1) Kristallnacht was one of the first pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany. The Nazi’s began to burn synagogues, Jewish businesses, and homes, as a result of the assassination of a German diplomat by a Jewish teenager, and to generally instill fear into the Jewish people. The Jewish population also experienced displacement, whether it be by choice or force. This period saw an increase of immigration of Jews to the United States. The Nazis also captured people and took them to ghettos where conditions were crowded, unsanitary, and lacked basic necessities. These acts were done to instill fear into the Jewish people in order to make them feel inferior. Discrimination was normalized because the people of Germany experienced it every day whether they were Jewish or not.
2) Buchenwald was in an extremely terrible condition during Murrow’s visit. Murrow encountered many children, and the men were also very weak and some even died while he was visiting. I think Murrow was shocked about the fact that men were dying while he was there. It’s something that he wouldn’t normally experience and it was just happening here as if it were a daily occurrence. The same fact shocked me. The fact that you could just be walking around with the prisoners and have one just drop dead is so mind-numbing to me.
3) Murrow sounded super stern as if he wanted those who were offended to know that they are in the wrong. He felt this way because his account was ‘mild’ to his standards and if you can’t handle that then they should do something to stop the atrocities.
4) Murrow seemed to be trying to argue that these people should be helped by those outside. I think he brings up the point of himself pulling out his wallet to give someone money as a way to sort of inspire others to do the same. He wants his listeners to feel guilty and charitable towards the victims of the Holocaust. I think he achieved his goals because the radio broadcast was so well spoken and the listener could almost see what was happening while they listened.
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I like and agree with pretty much all you said, but I feel like you left out the Nuremberg laws. While it is relatively easy to manipulate a population into irrationally hating a specific group, it doesn’t happen overnight. Like mostly things, it was a slow process where those affected couldn’t see the final outcome until it was there, and those being persuaded felt okay with it because it had become the norm. It’s sort of like the foot in the door phenomenon in psychology.
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I agree with your last paragraph. Murrow wanted the listener to not only be informed , feel bad , but also help. And yes, his tone was strict in a way , of if this offends you than he doesn’t care.
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Question 1:
In 1933, the Nazis came to power and slowly began passing anti-Semitic laws and pogroms. later on, the Nazis began to use concentration camps for Jews and other targeted groups. This eventually led to execution camps and death marches, signifying the Holocaust.
Question 2:
Camps like the one that Murrow visited were in horrible conditions for the prisoners. Children, professors, and workers were the large of majority of the prisoners at the camp. What was most shocking to Murrow was probably how important and symbolic Roosevelt was to the prisoners. The sheer amount of people who were sent to the prison was the shocking to me.
Question 3:
Murrow’s tone seems to be annoyed when he is delivering this statement. This is most likely due to his warning at the start of the broadcast and how he mildly described the events.
Question 4:
I feel like Murrow is trying to make the argument that prisoners were horribly kept on purpose rather than due to neglect. This evidence is supported through the Germans being well-fed and well-kept while the prisoners died of starvation and and disease. I believe listeners to this broadcast would become angry towards the Nazis for doing these acts. I believe Murrow achieved his goal because he describes the prison very well and paints the working Germans in a bad light.
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I like your response to question four, saying that his argument is that the Germans were kept well fed while the people were persecuted on purpose. However, in regards to your statement of his tone, I don’t really think that he was annoyed, but I do think that he may have been using a harsh tone, criticizing the Germans for the persecution of these people. He even said that he was deeply upset by the event so I don’t think that annoyed would be the appropriate word choice. Perhaps angered, or frustrated, but absolutely not annoyed.
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I agree with your first two statements, but I do not agree when you say he sounded annoyed, he sounded rather grim to me. Also, while the idea that prisoners were purposely treated horribly rather than due to neglect may have been a sub-theme, I see that it is more important to recognize the pedestrian population in the concentration camp.
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1) The Nazis had just risen to power and Hitler was a leading a discriminatory campaign against the Jews and other non-German peoples. The purpose of these actions placed the blame of Germany’s economic situation on the Jewish people so that more people would dislike them. This led to a normalization of discrimination because it meant that more people were more likely to dislike minority populations.
2) The conditions within the camp were detestable and horrific as people were falling dead and looking skeletal thin. It was as if there was barely a liberation within the camp, as though the Germans had just up and left and the prisoners were left to fend for themselves. Murrow encountered mainly those that were to sick to move or those that did not have the will to live. I think that Murrow was most shocked by the condition of the people within the camp, as the died where they stood and were underfed and not taken care of well. I was most shocked by the description of the rooming conditions, as there were 5 people in a bunk and 1200 people stuffed into a room that was barely able to contain 28 horses.
3) Murrow sounds dry and matter of fact. He sounds as though he feels that everyone should know about the conditions of the camp and that he will not stop the transfer of that information, no matter what others think or feel.
4) Without this information or this broadcast, very few amounts of people within America would have been able to experience even the smallest portion of the pain that the people within the concentration camps. I feel as though Murrow knew this and so with the small portion of time that he had to explain it he tried to pour all his anger and disgust into ten minutes. His goal was to build support for the people that survived this treatment and to further hatred towards the Nazis. He succeeds brilliantly at this as he goes into enough details to disgust the people listening while still not turning them off from actually listening.
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Hitler had to begin his “Final Solution” by warming people up to the discrimination of jews. He passed the Nuremberg laws and worked to convince people that Germany’s problems were the fault o the jews. By Passing the Nuremberg laws and creating identifiers and teaching children that being different and Jewish is bad he essentially created a society that allows the nazis to think and act or everyone.
The conditions of Buchenwald were absolutely terrible, complete disregard for the health of the inhabitants and a near perfection of the arts of torture and killing. The Men and children were literally bones and skin barely able to move, yet still hopeful and happy when the Americans arrive. I think the thing which shocked him the most was not even mentioned, considering the terrible things done to them. What shocked me most was the people who run the camp were not even affected by the state of the captives caught and starving to death in front of their very eyes. Murrow’s tone is not that he’s sorry if you got offended but that you should be very offended and disgusted by what happened there.
The Argument he is trying to make is that what happened was horrific and should never have happened or ever happen again. Murrow wanted his listeners to feel offended, disgusted and horrified this ever happened and that just by knowing it they can prevent it from every happening again. His goal of his informative broadcast was reached because of the way he described and didn’t describe what happened at this one of many Concentration camps.
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The Nazis targeted minority groups that they saw as a threat to them such as Jews, Slavs, Africans, and homosexuals. At the end of WWII, The Nuremberg Trials were used to persecute the Nazis’ war crimes. These War Crimes included the Final Solution which was the Nazis way eradicating the Jews. The destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues. They killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced Jews to live in ghettos, concentration camps, and execution camps.
The concentration camp there were several thousand men and children living there. In a stable that originally held 800 horses was being used to house 1200 men, 5 to a bunk. The food rations were slim and at one point, 900 people per day were dying. However, one man even said, from experience, that Buchenwald was the best concentration camp to be. I think that Murrow knew how bad the conditions were but I think that he was shocked to come face to face with them. Also, I think the normality of the prisoners surprised Marrow because he had met many of the men, heard of them, or many of them were doctors and professors. What shocked me most was how ordinary it seemed for all those people to be dying, it is so upsetting to think that death can become a norm.
Murrow’s tone sounds upset and heavy. He seems very sorrowful. He says he will not be sorry for what he had said because people need to know about the horrible injustice that occurred during WWII by the Nazis.
Murrow is trying to show his audience that the Holocaust was even worse than they could imagine. He discussed the tragedy and genocide and tried to make people less ignorant on the subject. He wants people to feel the same intense emotion of sadness and anger that he feels. I think that he did a wonderful job defending his argument and opening the public’s eye.
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I agree with you that Murrow’s tone alone could open the public’s eyes on how seriously and deadly the Holocaust was.
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I agree with you on most points but I also feel that it is important to mention the assassination of the German diplomat by the Jewish teen. I think this is a crucial point in the events leading up to the Final Solution, seeing as the Nazis used it as much of their justification for the pogroms against the Jews. I also believe that Murrow’s tone was almost more angry than sorrowful. To me, it sounded as if he was more frustrated with the circumstances than grieving for those lost during his broadcast.
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I strongly agree with the reaction against the Holocaust. I wouldn’t be able to even be there to see or get involved in. From outsider perspective like Murrow, I think everyone would be mad and sad and feel the need to change the conditions by doing something.
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1) In 1933, anti-Semitic laws and discrimination increased, and that led to the Final solution. The “solution” was Hitler’s way of justifying the murders of millions of Jews. Concentration camps were set up, and many Jews and other Nazi targets died. Hitler passed laws and made speeches that all of the problems Germany had was the Jews fault so everyone believed him and treated them horribly. Jews were not the only targets. Communists, Socialists, and other minorities were also punished.
2) The conditions of Buchenwald were repulsive and the stench of death was lurking. Murrow saw men that looked like skeletons and were abused. I think Murrow was surprised by how bad the conditions were and how humans were not even treated like humans. I was surprised by how death was considered a normal routine thing when it is really not to me.
3)He is unapologetic and honest and really wants people to know how bad it really is without going into details.
4) His argument to this report was that there needs to be some action to help save these innocent people. He wants to inform the people of the dire situations because he wants to make it important to everyone. He wants his listeners to be disgusted and outraged this is happening in hopes of some help in this situation. I feel that he did get some attention from this broadcast especially at the end where he says, “If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I’m not in the least
sorry.” (Murrow 3). This is showing that it is a lot worse than he is reporting, and saying this is all so horrible for it not to be true.
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In 1933, the Nazi Party dominated Germany. It was not long until the Nazi Party began to blame certain groups for their past downfalls and setbacks. The Nazi Party oppressed many groups, however they focused their views on anti-semitism. This led to the Final Solution, or restrictions on Jewish Europeans, which created the development of things such as concentration camps. Discrimination was normalized because Jews were not the only group being discriminated against. Anyone who didn’t meet Hitler’s ideal of “Germanic purity” was discriminated against the Nazi Party.
Murrow constantly talked about how bad the conditions were in Buchenwald. He greatly emphasized how awful the smell was throughout the large concentration camp, and referred to the smell as an “evil-smelling hoard”. The conditions of the barracks were not all that great either. One barrack was once a stable that could contain at the most 80 horses, but now there were about 1,200 men crammed together in the stable. There were two kind of men Murrow encountered in Buchenwald. The first kind was the well-fed, dominating German men, and the other kind was Jewish men from all over Europe on the brink of starvation and death. I think the most shocking part for Murrow was the amount of people killed within such a short period of time. In the podcast he said that the camp started with some 60,000 Jews. However, when he was there, there were only about 20,000 out of the 60,000 Jews left. I think the most shocking part for me was the statement about Buchenwald being one of the best camps in Germany. If seeing 500 skinny, pale bodies being stacked up is the best in Germany, then that’s a problem.
At the end of the broadcast Murrow tone suggest that he is saddened and angered by what he saw in Buchenwald. His tone is like this to make people understand what he witnessed, and to feel the pain he felt in his experience at the concentration camp. His tone also suggests that he has no regrets telling his experience, almost as if his experience needed to be heard.
I believe Murrow is trying to argue that the cruelty of Germany’s concentration camps are horrifically and disgustingly wrong. He wants anyone who doubts or is skeptical of what is going on at these concentration camps, to start believing that what is being reported about them is more than likely true. I think Murrow achieved his argument because of the way he described the camps. Also the broadcast was only part of what he saw, he didn’t even tell the listeners all that he saw and heard during his experience. Another reason I think he achieved his goal is because his account is very believable. Even if I was living during this time period I would find it believable because what he was describing seems too difficult to just lie about and make up.
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I like how you included many numbers and vocab from the powerpoint an the radio clip. I also agree with your thought on Murrow’s reason for discussing his time at the concentration camp.
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1. It started with the Nuremberg laws. This set of laws discriminated and separated the Jewish population from the rest of Germany. The German people, some grudgingly, accepted this. Little did they know, this first step was their ultimate undoing. Next came Kristallnacht, the first pogrom against the Jewish people. It was reported that a Jewish teenager assassinated a German diplomat. While the massacre that followed was largely attributed to spur of the moment reaction, these attacks were planned out by the Nazi party, using this event to promote the hate of Jewish people, elevating their own power by organizing these events. Then the Germans moved them to ghettos, further separating them, dehumanizing them, and normalizing cruel treatment. Then came the concentration camps, putting living breathing human beings in conditions not even fit for animals. And then everyone knows that after that came the death camps of the “Final Solution”. I have often wondered how Hitler gains support while doing these terrible things, but its no wonder now that I have all the information. You can say all the bad things you want about Hitler, and quite frankly I would be worried if you have no bad things to say, but he was smart and knew politics, psychology, and control. His policies made organized resistance not impossible, but entirely fruitless, giving the illusion that the government was not repressive. He excessively used the foot in the door phenomenon to promote persecution. This phenomenon states that after complying to a small request, it is much easier to comply to a larger one. In this case Hitler slowly eased his way through slowly fitting more and more through the door, until death camps were widely accepted. He also used the hate of the Jewish people and desire for revenge on the powers behind the treaty of Versailles to elevate his own and his party’s power. It was genius, but truly evil beyond words.
2. Murrow arrived at Buchenwald at a terrible time. Not that there was necessarily a good time, but worse than previous. While it was not the worst, the severely inhumane conditions obviously did more than to put Murrow on edge. I feel like what upset him most was the two old men crawling to the “latrine”, not because he talked a lot about it, but rather the disturbing omission of something so terrible and inhumane that a man who desperately wanted the bad conditions to get out into the news still wouldn’t dare speak of the horror of such conditions. Those two simple sentences struck a particular chord in me, and it too shocked me the most.
3. I honestly can’t decide. Maybe this is my own emotions speaking here, but it almost sounds angry, as if he wants to hit the man responsible but can’, so tries his best to impact verbally. But near the end, his tone changes, to a more sad and somber tone, like a man recalling the experience of watching the suffering of a dying loved one.
4. Murrow is making the argument that what has transpired is terrible beyond words and images, beyond the sounds of a dying people, beyond even witnessing the horrible conditions that occurred. Yet he is also making the argument that the public must know and that this cannot be censored, to best prevent an atrocity such as this from ever happening again. I believe he achieved his goal ,and this very assignment is evidence. The holocaust is taught in schools today, so that generations may know not only that it happened, but how it happened and why people let it happen, so that we do not allow anything so horrible to plague our one and only planet again.
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I really like how you answered the third question. I also felt that he was extremely angry at the people responsible, but couldn’t do anything. I think his goal was to raise his voice so those without one could finally be heard.
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a.
Before 1933, the Nazi party rose through Hilter, who (by enacted policy that started the Holocaust, to power 1933) or the state sponsered persecution of jews, slavs, communists, romas, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals. many others By 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were in place, which and prohibited Jewish people from doing activities such as working as doctors, using state hospitals, or even going to public places like beaches and parks. On November 9, 1938. jewish pogroms started, which further facilitated the use of antisemitic policy in Nazi Germany.
b.
The conditions at Buchenwald were horrific. Between the bodies piled on top of each other, stench radiating through the buildings, and the noticeable malnourishment, Murrow was disgusted. Among those with him were professors, doctors, and prisoners. After hearing about the meal rations, Marrow was informed that conditions at Buchenwald were among the “best” of concentration camps. Marrow was probably shocked most by knowing that there were camps worse than that, with thousands of people dying daily state wide. I was personally shocked by the quality of life. There were men crawling to the bathrooms, & innocent children placed in extermination camps and tattooed with numbers. I guess the most shocking of all of this is the fact that thousands of human beings were tortured and killed at the hands of another, I guess I just cant picture how someone could live with knowing that they are single handedly responsible for an act as awful as the holocaust.
c.
When Marrow said “if [he] has offended [them] by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, [he’s] not in the least bit sorry.”, he was using a condescending and mildly sarcastic tone. He is using this tone because he needed to establish a sense of sorrow amongst the americans, showing the jewish people persecuted as the innocent, to further establish Nazi hate and jewish sentiment.
d.
Marrow’s argument is that Americans need to “open their arms” to the jewish people. Marrow portrayed the prisoners in the camp as needy, malnourished and-most importantly- hopeful. He said that Roosevelt’s name was a beacon of hope for the imprisoned, therefore prompting the Americans to want to help. The use of extensive imagery and figurative language through his broadcast helped paint the picture of torture and misery on behalf of the imprisoned. His message came across well due to the fact that Zionism spread even more, and eventually Israel was created as a jewish state (in 1948).
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I agree with most of what you said. I can see your interpretation of the tone however, I respectfully have to disagree. The tone I personally did not feel he was using condescending or sarcastic tone. In a way I interpreted his tone as almost apologetic that he had to share such horrifying information and that there was no way he could make it sound any nicer.
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I agree with most of what you said, with the exception of question 3. I do not think Murrow was being sarcastic at all, he was just being straight-forward. He wanted to tell the public about what he had seen, to inform them about the situation of the camps. There was not any other way to share such horrific information, so he just had to say it. He only said he was not sorry because he could not really worry about the feelings of the people hearing this, when people were actually experiencing, and dying of the genocide.
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The Nazi party targeted minorities in German territories, including Jews (most notably), Africans, Slavs, and many more. Laws were passed to prevent Jews from gaining medical attention from state run hospitals, and from living normal, easy going lives. They were stripped from their German nationality. In November of 1938 the Nazi’s began organized killings of the German Jews.
The conditions of Buchenwald were “better” than other camps, but in my eyes, trash is trash. The German areas of the camp was remarkably cleaner than the rest. It smelled awful because there were 1200 people living together of the original 6000. I think Murrow was most shocked at how quickly the population fell and how little prisoners got to eat. I was most surprised at how he noted that the kitchen was very clean and how long some of the leaders of the camp had been there. I was also surprised that the Nazis were given orders to destroy documents and evidence because this shows that they knew it was wrong to put people in these conditions and murder children and their parents.
Murrow sounds kind of sarcastic when he says “mild”. I think he is disturbed that people wouldn’t walk to know the horrors of concentration camps.
Murrow is trying to report to the world the terrible conditions prisoners were subjected to and get people to open their eyes and he did. He was very descriptive. This was only a censored account and it STILL painted a picture in my head.
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What do you mean by “trash is trash”?
Also, I agree with you when you say that even though Murrow censored his broadcast so much, it still painted a picture. He was descriptive enough to let us know that he had seen something terrible.
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By “trash is trash” I meant that even though they said it was one of the best camps, it was still a prison and death bed for thousands of people. In other words, it would be the best of the worst.
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1.
In 1933 , the practice of Nazism dominated Germany . The Nazis targeted minorities such as Jews, Africans , homosexuals and slaves because these people were seen as a “threat” . They threaten leadership and norms which the Nazis hated. The Nazi Party had a focus on antisemitism. Which led to the Final Solution, the restrictions on Jewish Europeans. These actions normalized discrimination because the people who didn’t meet Hitler’s standards of “purity” were discriminated against by Nazis and people who followed.
2.
The conditions in Buchenwald had to have been horrendous the way described . Murrow described the entire place to have an awful smell calling it an “evil-smelling stink ”. Stables that originally held 80 horses was now housing 1200 men. Hundreds of people were dying a day from starvation , there wasn’t enough food to sustain life . The two types of men i think he encounter are the people who feared death and those who fought it. I think Murrow was most shocked about the outlook on death , people where dying before his eyes and that was the normal for people at the camp they no longer feared the day they would die but for him that wasn’t common. What shocked me most was the fact that people in charge couldn’t find one ounce of compassion in there hearts for those in the camps, which is terrible.
3.
Murrow’s tone is very unapologetic . Basically he feels like you shouldn’t take offense to what hes saying but you should be disgusted that this ever went on in the first place. He’s really doesn’t care at all that his description of the camp was detailed because nothing compares to what the people in these camps actually experienced.
4.
Murrow’s argument is that something needs to be done about what was happening . That the Holocaust was worse than imaginable and having witnessed it he knows . He wants the listeners to feel the pain of the people , try to put themselves in the shoes of the prisoners . He also wants the listeners to gain the passion he has for this subject. I think that he achieved his goal , he argued his point well and hopefully made the public more knowledgeable on the subject.
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The Nazi party, headed by Adolf Hitler, rose to dominance in Germany in 1933. It was at this same time that the Jewish genocide known as the Holocaust truly had its roots, although it did not begin with the extermination camps most commonly associated with it. Rather, the Holocaust saw casualties within many other groups, such as Slavs, Africans, disabled peoples, and homosexuals. Systems of persecution were developed against the Jewish people specifically within the German government itself with the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, laws that forbade these minority peoples from participating in anything from German nationalism through display of the flag to marriage or work affiliation with non-Jewish Germans. Tensions against the Jewish population in Germany had been stirring within the Nazi party for quite some time, and in 1938, they finally reached their peak after a German diplomat was murdered by a Jewish teenager. This gave the Nazi party enough leverage and justification to carry out previously-planned attacks against Jewish people and organizations in a massacre known as “Kristallnacht.” After this, Jewish immigration out of Germany began to rise rapidly, with incredibly high numbers of applicants in 1939. In that same year, Jewish people within German territory were moved to ghettos, where a superfluous amount of people were crammed into unsanitary city districts without proper means to survive. Over this same span of time, beginning in 1933, concentration camps were also utilized by the Germans, with rapidly increasing amounts of prisoners throughout the duration of the Holocaust. It was only after all of this that the “Final Solution [to the Jewish question” was developed, calling for the building of efficient extermination camps for hopes of wiping out the Jewish population. The purpose of the rising anti-Semitic movement in Germany was to create a distinct sense of difference between Jews and Germans, with the former being seen as “other.” The legal isolation of Jewish people through the Nuremberg Laws, as well as the physical displacement and relocation of them, gave German people no contact with them, and thus no reason not to believe that they were evil or inferior. Discrimination was normalized through the extensive anti-Semitism of the Nazi party; the government and its leaders themselves called for the persecution of the Jewish people.
The conditions in Buchenwald at the time of the arrival of Murrow were atrocious. There was a heavy and lingering stench in the air, the housing of the prisoners was filthy and crowded, and dead bodies were stacked publicly for all to see within a “small courtyard.” Murrow encountered men, workers within the camp, who seemed to have become desensitized to the horror which constantly surrounded them. For example, the man who accounted for rations and worked in the kitchen had an elaborate chart on display, with red tabs representing a certain amount of prisoner deaths. When questioned about it, the man in the kitchen stated, “We’re very efficient here.” Also, Murrow encountered prisoners who spoke of Roosevelt with unconditional positive regard, looking to him and his country as saviors of sorts. The most shocking aspect of the camp to Murrow would likely be that, overall, the conditions disproved his previous skepticism and to a great degree worse than he could ever imagine. He was horrified by the weakness and filth that plagued the prisoners of Buchenwald. For me, the most shocking thing was that he described the people within the camp as hopeful at the time of liberation. After such atrocities committed to them and their people, it is amazing to me that these people could have still been “smiling with their eyes” once meeting the gaze of Murrow.
Murrow’s tone is heavy with anger and disgust as he looks back at his experiences at Buchenwald. He speaks in a manner deliberate and that implores his listeners to believe him, as it upsets him that he himself had skepticism before his experience at the camp, and that there was such an ignorance of Americans of the horrors being committed in Germany.
Murrow is making the argument that the situation of minorities in Germany is something that should be broadcasted as he has done, rather than ignored and disbelieved. He argues that the lives lost during the Holocaust were a completely different thing than lives lost in the wage of war. He wants his listeners to be devastated simply by the thought of the conditions people are facing in Germany, and he wants them to believe that the events of the Holocaust are much more than rumors. I believe he achieved this, as his account was extremely detailed and thorough, and he seemed genuinely distraught as he recounted the terrible conditions he witnessed. His final statements solidify that he is not willing to sacrifice the truth for the sake of his listeners’ comfort, and that in itself is convincing of a man who only wants his story to be heard.
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1) The Nazis came to power in 1933. Many of these anti-Semitic laws were beginning to be passed, which leads to the segregation of many minority groups, including the Jewish population. Concentration camps were being built to work these groups to death. Hitler led this discriminatory campaign against these groups. This led to the normalization of discrimination among Germans towards these groups, and the passing of the Nuremberg laws taught children that Jewish people were “bad” and had specific characteristics.
2) Conditions of Buchenwald were extremely poor, in the facts that many people were dying everyday, the sanitation of the camps was at a bare minimum, and the crowding and starvation made it nearly impossible to do labor without injury or death. Murrow came into contact with very friendly prisoner and workers, who showed him around the camp and asked him about life in the civilized cities. Shocking Murrow the most was the mass amount of death hovering over the camp(s). He was horrified by the conditions and the number of lives being taken everyday due to genocide and extremely poor areas of living (if you could even call it “living”). Murrow referred to the prisoners as the “living dead” many times in his broadcast. What shocked me the most was the spirit of those inside the camp. Hearing how they talked to Murrow and made friendly conversation with him gave me so much hope. It brought me to tears, thinking and hearing of how so many of them though they were going to survive and see the liberation.
3) Murrow is meaning that he is not sorry for speaking the truth. He told his listeners what he saw. If they cannot handle the truth of what is going on with the horrific living conditions of those in the camps, it is their fault. Murrow is not sorry for shining a much needed light on what was happening inside the camps. He sounds very condescending, almost pitiful to those who cannot handle the horror of the camps. He gives sympathy to the prisoners, and is asking for the sympathy of this listeners.
4) The argument that Murrow is trying to make is that this is actually happening. He wants his listeners to feel horrified. He wants them to take action and help to stop the genocide. He wants them to learn about the horrible conditions the minorities are being put through. I personally feel as though he achieved his goal. This broadcast gave me chills and brought me to tears, and this happened more than 75 years ago. Certainly, the audience of the broadcast during the live airing must have felt a much stronger feeling than I did.
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I agree that the broadcast was really powerful. I was also brought to tears, and believe his argument was thoroughly achieved.
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The Holocaust began in 1933 when the Nazi Regime took control of Germany. Shortly after the Nazis rose to power, the Nuremberg Laws were passed which basically stripped the Jewish population of all freedoms of choice and denied them most opportunities to succeed in life. Following the assassination of a government official by a Jewish teen, the Nazis enacted a series of pogroms against the jews beginning with Kristallnacht, which consisted of 91 deaths and the destruction of many Jewish buildings. Many Jews then attempted to flee Germany, but a majority were transferred into ghettos following Germany’s invasion of Poland. Concentration camps also increased during this period, until Heinrich Himmler began constructing industrialized extermination camps instead, as a part of his Final Solution. These actions all served to dehumanize the Jews so that the citizens of Nazi Germany would be desensitized to the type cruelty being inflicted upon these peoples.
The conditions of Buchenwald when Murrow and the American troops arrived were putrid, and unbelievable for all the wrong reasons. The living conditions were inhumane, the death count was incredibly high, and prisoners all around Murrow were dropping like flies. Very few prisoners had an intact uniform and most were too weak to even stand. During his tour, Murrow encountered doctors, children, starving men, hopeful men, and even dead men. I believed what shocked Murrow the most about his visit to Buchenwald was the sheer number of not only the dead but also the “living dead”, as he describes them. But what surprised me the most, was that the Germans living near these camps could not possibly have been oblivious to all the horrors taking place, yet they were able to do nothing and feel no remorse whatsoever.
Murrow’s tone when he states, “If I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I’m not in the least sorry,” is angry, frustrated, and unapologetic. He is fed up with the Nazis treatment of those peoples, of course, but he seems even more upset with the fact that nobody had done anything to try and stop it.
The argument that Murrow was trying to make is that it is never acceptable for human beings to be treated with such disgrace, and that allowing it to happen is just as bad as if you were the one turning on the gas. He wants his listeners to feel how uneasy it made him to walk through that camp, and he wants them to know that trying to imagine how awful it would have been to live there is frankly impossible. He wants them to believe in the rumors about what goes on under Hitler’s authority, for they are true and a thousand times worse than anyone could have ever imagined. I believe that Murrow achieved the goal that he said out to accomplish, because although his account was heartwrenching and graphic, he makes sure to let his audience know that it was still only the censored version. This alone is enough to inspire an individual to want to make a change, and ensure that this type of tragedy never happens again.
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Beginning in 1933, the Nazis came to power in Germany and began to implement many new policies under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. These policies included the Holocaust, the purging of unwanted ethnic, social, and political groups from the German population. One group that was largely persecuted and killed were the Jewish in places called concentration camps that were used to kill and keep these groups in one area. This all led to the Final Solution. This was the plan by Henrich Himmler to kill Jews all over Europe by creating more extermination camps. This helped “normalize” discrimination by having the government (high up officials) set the example and directly saying one group is better than another and by having a set punishment for the members of the unwanted groups.
When Murrow and the American troops arrived at Buchenwald, the conditions were bad. There was a recognizable stench as soon as you entered and many unhealthy- looking man and boys stood around. However, a man living there said this was the best concentration camp. Murrow met very diverse people in the camp from different backgrounds, such as a doctor from Vienna, a professor from Poland, Germans, and Englishmen. I think this surprised Murrow because the people were so diverse and still could relate to each other through being persecuted by the Nazis. He also met people from different age groups, such as the boys who had the tattoos of their assigned numbers. This shocked me because little children even were present there and had to be numbered with a tattoo.
Murrow’s tone is strict, blunt and a little informative when he discusses how he is unapologetic about his account. I think he delivers this line to show that he wanted to share this information and show the people listening what is happening in the Buchenwald concentration camp.
I think Murrow is making the argument that the persecution and living conditions of these people is wrong. He does this by going into detail on what he sees and experiences while at the camp. For example, he repeatedly describes the smell of the camp and later describes the room they keep the bodies in in a way where you can almost visualize it.
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I feel like you did a good job interpreting the background of the concentration camps and the persecution of many minority groups. However, I feel like you may be missing the hint of upset lying with Morrow. He does inform about the terrors of these camps with a sort of blunt tone but he also has a position on the issue that we cannot forget. On the other hand, good job talking about how you could almost visualize the sights of the camp with the Murrow’s descriptions. That shows good attention to detail. Great Job Mish!
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Begining the Nazi’s rise to power in 1933, the “state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately eleven to seventeen million individuals belonging to other groups who were deemed “inferior” or dangerous to the stability of the Nazi regime.” (PowerPoint3). The Nazi mostly targeted Jews and soon in 1935 therr were ” a collection of anti-Semitic laws known as the Nuremberg Laws were passed in Germany.” (PowerPoint4). In which the Kristallnacht, emigration, removal of Jews to ghettos, and the concentration camps all led to the final solution. Their purpose was to eliminate Jewish populations and these actions normalized discrimination because it showed how one group killed atleast 6 millions of another group in which they believed had effect to their power and we disliked because of being a Jew.
When Murrow and the Anerican troops arrived at Buchenwald I believe that he was surprised because people told him that it was the best camp. When he had arrived he realized how cruel and harsh the punishment and treatment of the soldiers were to those people in the camps. The conditions were bad and stables were filled and cramped together with 1,200 men. He encountered starving men, some with infections, but also a good bit of men who wanted to live. I was most shocked at the fact that how healthy the German soldiers were but they still felt not shame or pity towards those in suffer.
At the end of the broadcast, Murrow tells his audience that “if [he] has offended [them] by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, [he’s] not in the least bit sorry. (Liberation of Buchenwald). His tone in the broadcast he sounded very annoyed or angered because he just wanted to people to truly understand what he witnessed through out the camp.
The abutment that Murrow wanted to make clear that the actions of the Nazi’s were completely horrifying and morally wrong for any human to commit. He wants the listeners to feel disgusted and horrified at the actions committed at this camp and that people should be thankful for our troops to have been sent in to liberate them. I believed that he did achieve his goal considering the fact that I felt sick as to how cruel the Nazi’s were and horrible. He described the event so well and his tone helped describe and give a more sense to the readers of how it was to make us also feel how he felt when he encountered these cruel actions.
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I agree with you Baileigh, but Jews were not the only ones being persecuted during the time of the holocaust. In fact, those that were looked at as targets for “extermination” involved those belonging to any of the groups of communists, Slavic individuals, African, the disabled, socialists, the Roma, Jehovah’s witnesses, homosexuals, or Jews (ppt 4).
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Argument* in last paragraph
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I agree with what you said in paragraph two. It was extremely upsetting how the Germans acted so oblivious to everything wrong that they were doing. They joked about the prisoners in the camp acted unaffected by the suffering that occurred with their help.
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The pogroms were put into place when a Jewish teenager killed a German diplomat (Kristallnacht), which worsened the situation and caused the Nazis to set up ghettos, which could have been used for the industrialized genocide of Jews. What the Nazis did was not justified, but they believed it to be justified because there was occasional violence against the Nazi party. The Boer War and the Spanish-American War used concentration camps, so it was not a farfetched idea for the Nazis to commit killings, in this case, it was mass genocide.
When Murrow and the American troops arrived at Buchenwald, they encountered “the living dead”. The people there were shells of what they once were and had no desire to live anymore. Murrow encountered people one would see every other day, like a man who crafted leather in Vienna, or even the one-time mayor of Prague, Petr Zenkuld. While Murrow seemed most shocked about how outside the concentration camp, the world seemed brightly and ditzy because all the Germans were fell fed and the landscape was beautiful, I was disturbed by the non-chalantness of the soldiers; they threw murdered Jewish people into ditches without thinking twice about the horrible life they had lived in the concentration camp.
When Murrow delivers the line “if I have offended you by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, I not in the least bit sorry.” he speaks in a tone that is concerned for all of humanity. He is stern, he gets his point across. He does not care about the appetite of Americans when genocide is going on.
Murrow obviously wants to portray the horrors of the concentration camps to the American people, which he has done. He wants the audience to know that the lives in the concentration camp were commonly known and not special people; he wanted to teach the audience that this could happen the anyone. I believe he does this very well by including people such as the mayor or leather crafter mentioned above.
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I agree with your answer to the second question. The casualness of all the Germans who were not harmed by the Holocaust is disheartening, and Murrow finds it strange to see that the two worlds could be so drastically different.
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I agree with Jordan in that Murrow has a tone that gets the point across and doesn’t care about if other people can’t handle the information, they would need to know.
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The Nazi party rose to power and began to target minority groups such as Jews, Homosexuals, and the Disabled.The Nuremberg Laws were passed which helped to further assist their efforts of persecution. The passing of these laws along with the implementation of death marches, concentration camps, and open anti-Semitic behavior helped to normalize the discrimination
The conditions were awful. He spoke of the skeleton appearances, the foul odors, and the starvation and the dead and dying people. Murrow was most likely surprised by the awful conditions that existed, and the number of people on the brink of death. I felt so shocked by the fact that so many healthy Germans felt okay in the awful condition and treatment of people in the camps.
Murrow sounds sorrowful and distant as if he is attempting to process the conditions people lived in and how anyone could have survived for any period of time. He isn’t sorry because in the end people must know, no matter how awful it is.
Murrow made the argument that these conditions were due to neglect and that these people needed help to escape these awful conditions. He wants people to feel guilt and shame that they allowed this, he wants them to feel empathy for these people, and sorrow for the lives lost. He wants disgust at the horrendous conditions and the starvation and the loss of human life. I think he did achieve this goal. He shed much needed light onto these conditions and situations in a way that wasn’t shown by other groups of people.
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The Nuremberg laws and pogroms against the Jewish people.Resentment caused a Jewish person to assassinate a german diplomat, however, with the rise of HitlerAryan supremacy was already prevalent. The purpose of the actions was to get a reason to openly oppress and discriminate against Jewish people, along with other minorities. When people started to retaliate,Nazis used this to justify discrimination.
The facility was in poor conditions and it was clear that lots of death had occurred. The prisoners were
weak and in poor condition. Murrow came across sickly prisoners and healthy Germans. He seemed to be fixated on the sharp contrast between the Germans and the prisoners. I was not particularly shocked because of prior knowledge and many depressing accounts, however, I found myself frustrated and depressed again.
Murrow is stern and frustrated when he says this. Heis trying to convey to the people how bad the situation
was.
Murrow was trying to show how horrific the situation was and how much the Jewish people needed the U.S.He wants his listeners to understand how evil a person could be. He wants them to feel sympathetic, horrified, and to some degree, guilty. He achieved his goal because people made changes to how they looked at the world and how they should approach conflict.
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“Murrow was trying to show how horrific the situation was and how much the Jewish people needed the U.S.He wants his listeners to understand how evil a person could be.”
I completely agree with your analysis of the holocaust and this documented record. I believe, as well, that Murrow was trying to show the terror of Nazi actions against minor groups of Germany. This could also be seen as a political message, as you described, to get the US more involved in fighting the democidal acts by the Nazi government.
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1. Beginning with the 1933 German Election, the Nazi’s were in complete power over the government. From this date, the holocaust began. The Holocaust was the targeted mass killing of many groups of people, particularly Jews. However, other minor groups were targeted as well, including communists, Africans, and homosexuals. Through the years, the holocaust only got worse. The mass killings really started increasing in 1938, when the Nazis started a series of pogroms. This was a series of massacres throughout Germany that killed Jews and destroyed architecture of the targeted groups. These massacres and mass killings of jews really normalized the discrimination against the Jews. Hitler had a way of convincing people that jews were evil. The Final Solution was the plan to completely get rid of Jews through extermination camps.
2. The conditions of Buchenwald were absolutely terrible. “An Evil Smelling Hoard”, the speaker describes. There were dead people throughout. This was an extermination camp. The men were suffering. The Germans weren’t very pleasant people, though they showed him around the camp.The men were very weak. They were all clustered in with large densities. Disabled men were crawling. Men were dying in action. I think that the speaker was most surprised by the conditions of the camp. Primarily how poorly treated and weak these people were. I suppose this because the speaker is putting a large emphasis on how weak the individuals were. I was most surprised by the same thing- how poor the conditions were. These individuals were all so incredibly weak, they were tired. I have never heard such a great description of the treatment of people in Nazi camps.
3. The speaker’s tone is letting the listener, or reader, know that the message was a very brief description of what was actually occurring in Nazi Germany and that people need to wake up and realize what is happen. This is closely connected to the argument he is trying to make.
4. The speakers argument here is that there is a major problem occurring in Nazi Germany. His argument was that the conditions in Nazi Germany are gross, disgusting, and just absolutely terrible. Based on his descriptions, the conditions could be considered inhumane. Obviously, the conditions were poor in Nazi Germany, but the speaker puts an emphasis on how weak and deathly the people were. He described them as, “the walking dead”. Because of this, he wants people to feel sympathy for the victims of the holocaust as well as disgust with the German Government. I believe that he achieved this goal, at least he did for me. I knew of the conditions in Nazi Germany, but this really caused an emotional response to the situation as the speaker intended.
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The Final Solution was the plan developed by Heinrich Himmler that described the”annihilation” of Jews in Europe by establishing extermination/concentration camps. This was implemented after the events of Kristallnacht and the fleeing of several Jews from Germany due to the harsh conditions of the ghettos and fear of persecution. The Final Solution was normalized through the Nazi Party that was implemented in Germany as a common ground or similarity throughout the non-Jewish population.
When Murrow arrived in the camps, he had entered an environment that had all of the life sucked out of it, as people were starving, miserable, and dying without their loved ones by their sides. They were separated from their families and their average daily food rations as they were being forced to adjust to a scrap of bread with a slight amount of margarine on it daily.
Murrow is not in the least bit apologetic for the deliverance of his message due to the fact that one cannot possibly bear any amount of pain hearing a broadcast such as this when thinking of how much pain was endured by those who actually suffered through the events being described in the broadcast. It is informative and if one neglects to notice the cruel events of the past, then one is not assessing history in an entirely fair perspective
Murrow achieved his goal with the deliverance of this broadcast as his main goal was to make his audience feel an opinion towards the topic, not just think about the topic but actually develop a sense of wrongness for the events that occurred as a result of Nazi Germany.
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1) The Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, the Holocaust was the intentional murder of people who were considered inferior to the Nazis, the primary target of their prosecution was the Jewish populations. However other targets include communists, Slavs, disabled people, even homosexuals. The Nuremberg laws were past in 1935, they were essentially anti-Semitic laws the prohibited the laws of the Jews of Germany. There were many massacres,pogroms, of the Jewish people. Ghettos were established as isolation cities for thee Jewish people of an area. Even though concentration camps were nothing new, they became more frequent under the Nazis with most working to death or just sent there to die. The final solution was the plan to completely exterminate the Jewish people in Europe, these created many industrialized camps. The normalization of discrimination was furthered because the laws and bans put in place would actively point out a specific group of people.
2) Buchenwald was a foul smelling camp with tons of men. There were an immense amount of people dying even before his eyes. Children were starved and tattooed, many of the men in the camp were actually many previously high standing people in the countries of their origin before they ended up in the camp. The kitchen was the only piece of the place that was clean albeit it served awful rations. I believe the thing that shocked Murrow the most was how blunt the officers and people there about the conditions, particularly the comment about “how efficient” they were with the amount of deaths that occurred and how they were handled. The thing that shocked was how people were literally dropping dead every minute and the amount of men who were shoved into a camp and then the amount that seem to die throughout is just incomprehensible and it just seems to me that these people were animals, not human beings, because one person can simply not kill and discard as these people did.
3) It had a slight coldness to his tongue, he was being every slightly sarcastic and almost daring, “do you think it was not nearly as bad as I have told, because it was a million times worse”.
4) Murrow is trying to make the argument that even as the war had come to a close there was still a large amount of work and repair that needed to be done because there were casualties that occurred even after the fighting stopped. He wants his listeners to learn of the horrific things that happened to other people that many probably had no clue of prior, he may even want to feel resentment towards those who did and were ever so stoic about it, I believe he gives so many gruesome details out to make people imagine the worst possible scenarios. i think he achieved his goal because over 70 years later I’m listening to this and my imagination is taken to a very dark place with horrific things happening an even though I’m well aware of all that happened back then I still cannot think about it without getting goosebumps or just the thought that someone could be so twisted to actually think of this way to kill other people without a second thought, its repulsing and I was not even there, I can hardly imagine how it actually was.
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Leading up to the Final Solution, Germany saw the Nazi Party rise to power. Their ideals became further and further ingrained in German society as policies like the Nuremberg laws and Kristallnacht were implemented. As dehumanization and persecution of the “undesirables” worsened with the use of concentration camps and state-planned pogroms, Nazi Germany made its way to the idea of the Final Solution. This not only allowed for more efficient extermination of Jews but also normalized discrimination by isolating the terrors of the Holocaust to specific locations.
The conditions that Murrow and the American soldiers encountered at Buchenwald were horrifying. He was surrounded by awful stenches and was faced with the gruesome deaths of some of the prisoners. Murrow seemed to be most surprised by the extremely high number of deaths in the camp. I was taken aback by his description of the children and their number tattoos. While it is commonly known that children were taken as prisoners to concentration camps, it’s always shocking to hear.
Murrow sounds a bit defiant and unashamed at his lack of apology. What he saw and witnessed is not something that should be sugarcoated or ignored. He is unapologetic about sharing such information, because he feels that it needs to be heard.
Murrow is trying to make the argument that the wickedness inflicted upon minorities in Germany was completely real and that actual human lives were being affected by it. He wants his listeners to see this; he wants them to realize that they can not ignore the carelessness with which people’s lives were being regarded. I do think he achieved that goal, because he was truthful and attempted to give people the most comprehensive account he possibly could. However, I do wish he went into more detail, especially as an American journalist. Since American audiences do prefer less direct conversations about this kind of subject matter, it would have been different if someone described it in a more thorough (and less cookie-cutter) way. I feel like this would have made his argument more compelling and bold, causing listeners to see the full magnitude of the situation.
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1.) Germany in 1933, Nazi Party rise into power and start to target certain groups that are deemed ‘inferior’ and dangerous to the regime. These groups include Jews, homosexuals, Africans, the disabled… Nazi’s built the first concentration camp in Dachau, Germany. Later they would pass the Nuremburg Laws in 1935 that prohibited Jews for working and marrying non- jewish people. Then it would follow up to Kristallnacht in 1938, Jewish teenager assassinating a German diplomat was a scene set up by the Nazi but caused a lot of damage to Jewish worship centers. A year later, Jews were moved to ghettos. Lastly the Final Solution resulting in the making of extermination camps. The probable reason why the Nazi’s would do this is that they blame groups for Germany losing in WWI. Then there is Hitler with his idea of “German superiority” among others. These actions led to the picking of who should live and who should die.
2.) When Murrow entered Buchenwald, the first sense he describe was the place having a “evil- smelling stink.” Men are ragged and have death in their eyes.The place was terrible and have the poorest, harsh conditions (the only places that were kept clean was the kitchen), and while being toured around, he encountered several people like the former mayor of Prague, whom Murrow did not recognize. He met many professors, doctors, men from Europe, and hundreds of thin children with numbers on their arms. The one thing that surprised him the most were the harsh treatment, and mass killings of people and children and how the Germans do not seem to care about it. I would also be surprised and angry as well.
3.) When he said that line, he sound liked that this something that needs to go out. Angry on how prisoners are treated to the point that he would not care about the people offended. All that matters to him are the people who are willing to listen on what is going on in Buchenwald and how would they think about the situation. Also, having that much anger, he tried to stay cool, and keep from describing everything he sees to not disgust the audience.
4.) His argument was more like the way prisoners were treated in Buchenwald are wrong. Using observations and describing, he was able to project the idea to the audience of what Buchenwald is. He would later follow it up with what he thinks, using ‘the worst humanity can commit,’ it gives off a really strong message on the thought ‘this is how people should treat one another even no matter how different they are?’ Plus, giving off strong emotions, he wants people to show what he really thinks about it.
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I agree with you, I feel as though he doesn’t want to only show his feelings on the situation, but he also wants to make the audience develop certain opinions, too. He uses the broadcast to inform a little, but to get across that things were not okay in Nazi Germany, and how that should be known everywhere.
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In Germany in 1933 the Nazis came to power. The Nazis implemented policies called the Nuremburg Laws. These Laws took away rights and privileges that the Jewish population had. The purpose of these laws was to cause the people to hate the Jews and further justify the extermination of 6 million of them in concentration camps. This led to further discrimination of the Jewish people and support of Hitler and his collaborators.
In Buchenwald the conditions that the Americans and Murrow encountered were very bad. The area reeked and was disgusting to live in. The men looked dirty and malnourished. I believe that Murrow was most surprised by the statement that this was the best concentration camp. I think this made him question just how brutal and terrible that the conditions were in the concentration camps. I was shocked at just how descriptive and harsh sounding that the details of the concentration camp were. I was also shocked that the German soldiers felt no shame or pity for how the inmates were being treated.
When Murrow delivered his final line I believe that he felt a bit agitated that he had to make the camps seem more “PG” than they were. He wished to tell the story and the conditions of the camps just as they were, he didn’t want to filter out any information because it might have seemed “offensive”.
The argument that Murrow was trying to make was that the actions of the Nazis were horrible and unforgiveable. He wants the audience to be sad but he wants them to learn from the experience. he tries to show that the Holocaust was a terrible event and he is trying to prevent further occurrences similar to it. His verbiage and description of the events was so realistic that it made it seem as if the viewer were actually there.
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1) In the days leading up to the Final Solution, Hitler was striping every right Jewish people had, he took away their property and forced them to live in ghettos until they were transported to concentration camps. All Jews were also forced to wear the Star of David to tell they were Jewish. The purpose of these actions was because Hitler thought that all of Germany’s problems that came from WWI were because of the Jews.
2) When Murrow entered the camp, he saw tons of men and children. All men and children were malnourished except for the German guards. The thing that shocked Murrow the most was the smell of the living quarters for the Jews. The thing that shocked me the most was the fact that some prisoners were living in the Buchenwald for 12 years and were still able to survive.
3) The argument that Murrow was trying to make was that the Holocaust was a real thing and real people were actually being affected by this. He wants his listeners to get a perspective of someone living in that camp and to imagine the hardships that they had to endure. I feel like he achieved his goal because his speech about his findings could be very eye opening to the American eye at the time.
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The Nazi’s began to rise to power in 1933 in which they felt the need to systematically kill off various people within the population who were a threat to the Nazi government. The beginning of the Holocaust in 1933 was the mass killing that was sponsored by the government which ended the lives of approximately 11 to 17 million. The development of the Nuremberg Laws which were laws that prohibited Jews from doing a multitude of activities such as displaying the national flag and using state hospitals were enforced. At the end of 1938, the term Kristallnacht which were pogroms against the Jewish and the moving of Jews into Ghettos and concentration camps became prominent. These events led up led up to the Final Solution and these eventful actions normalized the discrimination in Germany by these plans becoming set in stone by making them the laws of the land.
The conditions of Buchenwald were severe. When they arrived, Murrow explains the amount of high security of Buchenwald had by describing the amount of guards that were seen. He also describes the smell of the environment as an “evil-smelling stink”, and the men and boys with who had “death” on their faces. Murrow encounters men from various backgrounds who weren’t only Jewish such as a French man and American man and also German leaders and officials. I think that Murrow was shocked the most by the treatment of the people who were held as prisoners and the environment and conditions the lived in such as the smell and the amount of food they received. I was shocked by the hope that many of the prisoners possessed regardless of the cruel conditions they were living under.
Murrow’s tone of voice was very sarcastic when it came to this line. Due to the fact that he felt the need to report on his experience at Buchenwald, it almost seems that he finds this as his duty to somewhat spread awareness of the issue. Therefore, that is shown through his tone in which he truly has no feeling towards the feelings of others when it came to his accounts.
Murrow’s argument was that the actions of the Nazi’s were shocking and degrading. The systematic killing of multiple groups of people is inhumane and wrong and that it is our duty to attempt to implement change but first we must be aware and that is what he seeks out to do. He wants his listeners to understand the conditions that the prisoners went throughout, to learn of the internal and external battles they had to fight within the camp, and as listeners feel the need to help make a change. I believe that he did achieve his goal by grasping the attention of his listeners and providing them with a source of influence on the issue.
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When the Nazi Party took over through Hitler in 1933, their ultimate goal was genocide. The main groups targeted were Jews, the disabled, and other minority groups. Concentration camps were set up to starve the unwanted populations. When these camps were not killing the populations off fast enough, the Final Solution was put into place. The Final Solution led to the creation of extermination camps with the only goal of quick, mass murder of unwanted German populations. All of this was meant to normalize discrimination against the unwanted populations, because the government was the one implementing all of these outrageous laws. With Nazi government officials telling people that one group of people is better than another, the German people listened, and discrimination was ‘normalized’.
Conditions in all of the concentration/extermination camps were deplorable. Murrow saw prisoners that were only skin and bones, barely alive. He described the cramped living conditions, the horrible odors, and the sight of hundreds of dead bodies piled on top of each other. Murrow also saw people he had once known, before the camps in Germany. This shocked him the most about his experience, that a man that her had once known could be transformed so greatly through the mistreatment, that he could not even recognize him. He also spoke of how well the Germans were dressed and fed. This personally, was appalling. I just can’t believe a human being would stand around, perfectly healthy, and watch another man die, because of their bad health.
Murrow makes this statement to get his point across. He is very up-front, but also regretful, in a way. He says he is not sorry because just hearing about the conditions of the camps could never be as horrible as actually having to experience the genocide or the death camps, themselves.
Murrow makes the argument of just how horrible the camps were. He was trying to portray the death and torture of the genocide in an accurate way, which he did. He gave the audience the straight facts about the camps, and then elaborated and interpreted them in his own way. Murrow want the audience to be scared. He wanted them to be horrified by what they have heard and demand to get the people out of these horrific camps.
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I like how you added that Murrow didn’t just feel mad, but that he felt “regretful.” He had to experience a horrific incident that no one should have to witness or even live through. Most likely, people during that time did not truly understand how terrible the Holocaust really was until Murrow could give them this visualization. I also like how you mention how Murrow broadcasted this event to make the audience “scared.” This again shows that not everyone understood the destruction the Holocaust.
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1933 was the year Nazis came to power in Germany. The Nazis established the first concentration camps during this time period. They also led a major antisemitic movement occurred that involved discrimination against Jews. The discrimination was meant to use the Jewish population as a scapegoat for the effects of World War I on Germany. Discrimination was normalized because the German population was looking for a reason for the bad times that they were experiencing.
The condition when Murrow and the American Troops were horrific and almost unimaginable. Murrow encountered men that were basically slowly dying in front of him, these men had experienced some the worst feelings mentally and physically that humans could feel. I think what shocked Murrow the most was how the Germans in the camp acted so oblivious to the horrific crimes that they had participated in. The Germans running the camp often made jokes and acted like what was happening before them was nothing. This also shocked me because I think that participating in and seeing the events of the Holocaust everyday, even if they happened to your worst enemy, would negatively effect your attitude and change your mood.
Murrow’s tone in this line is extremely upset and angry. The tone he uses shows how important the events that happened in Europe are to him and how they are forever worse than him offending anyone with his remark about Buchenwald.
Murrow is trying t make the argument that what happened in Buchenwald is one of the wort things to happen during all of humanity and that Roosevelt was a great man because of his involvement in the stopping of the Holocaust. He wants the listeners to feel anger, speechlessness, and admiration towards Roosevelt. I believe that he did achieve his goal because this was one of the first public announces of what happened during the holocaust.
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The Nazi’s gained power in 1933, lead by Adolf Hitler, a German dictator. From 1933, the holocaust began. The Holocaust is known as one of the worst mass genocides in the world. The nazi’s goal was to completely exterminate the Jewish population, along with the minority population that included the disabled, homosexulas, Africans, and communists. In 1939, Germany invaded Poland which led to the establishment of the ghettos in the general government. The term Final Solution was used to explain the normality of getting ride of the minority. Germans believed they were superior to everyone else, but to make it easier to sleep at night , the final solution his basically made Germans feel less guilty for being a part of the Holocaust. Germans truly did believe all Jews were the enemy.
When Murrow and the American troops arrived at Buchenwald, they suddenly noticed the horrid smell around them. The camp was an old stable that help about 800 horses but the Germans held 1200 men; 5 men to a bunk. I feel Murrow was most shocked at the fact that the people in the concentration camp were ordinary people, such as scholars and handy men, but were still punished because of their race or preferred lifestyles. I was the most shocked at the fact that there were so many children in Buchenwald. I knew children were held in concentration camps but i assumed the conditions for them were slightly better because of their age…I was sadly wrong.
To me, Murrow’s statement was harsh sounding. By saying he’s “not the least bit sorry” if he offended or disturbed anyone listening to his broadcast, Murrow’s saying that he does’t feel bad for them because the men in this supposedly nice concentration camp suffered way more than any of us can even imagine.
Murrow believes his words should speak for themselves and that he shouldn’t need to jazz up a story to get an audience. The idea is that an audience would want to spend time and learn about the horrific stories taking place before and during the world and the readers should build a connection to each article he writes.
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I was also shocked by the fact that the children in these concentration camps were treated no differently than the men. This makes me wonder what type of men must have been chosen to watch over these concentration camps. They surely must have had little morals and no soul.
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In Germany, the Nazi party rose to power.The Nazis implemented the Nuremberg Laws, designed to dehumanize and discriminate against Jews. Concentration camps and Pogroms were also used to be rid of “undesirables”. These methods killed thousands by means of exhaustion and execution.
At Buchenwald people were in “rags” and many people were dead. Murrow encountered men that had been there for years, including a doctor and a mayor. Murrow may have been surprised at the multitudes of deaths at the camp. Personally, I was shocked at the treatment of humans. They people at the concentration camp lacked basic human rights and respect based on discrimination and hate.
When Murrow says that he is not sorry for possibly offending anyone, his tone is distant and somewhat upset.
The argument Murrow is trying to make is that concentration camps are not right and people should not be subjected to such treatment. He most likely wants listeners to be horrified and upset by this.
Murrow definitely achieved his goal. I am definitely disgusted and bewildered by the operation of concentration camps. I am sure he made many others feel his sorrow.
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Emily Claire Lauth
1. In 1933 the Nazis came to power and began to pass several anti-semitic laws, Then, this was escalated to concentration camps for Jews and other minorities. This led to the mass murders of the Jewish population including execution camps and death marches, representing the holocaust.
2. The conditions of Buchenwald were incredibly harsh and terrible. Murrow encountered people that were actual skin and bones, clearly malnourished and close to death, yet they were still optimistic and happy when the Americans came. I think that Murrow was somewhat aware of the conditions of the camps at the time when they came, but he was still extremely shocked to come face to face with them. What shocked me the most, was how normal death was, especially in such large numbers in a short amount of time.
3. Murrow’s tone when addressing the video at the end is entirely blunt and honest, he just wants to educate people on how bad the holocaust actually was.
4. His argument about this report was that there needs to be an action to stop this awful situation. He is arguing that the horrific events during the holocaust were incredibly wrong in so many ways, based on how he described the events at the camp. I think he achieved his goal because his accounts are extremely believable and make you feel sympathetic. He was successful also because now so many people around the world have at least basic knowledge of the holocaust.
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Beginning in 1933, the Nazis had risen to power within in Germany and German-occupied countries. This rise to power allowed for open discrimination against Jews, as the Nazis practiced anti-Semitism. Anti-Sematic laws were even passed within Germany. Known as the Nuremberg Laws; these laws systematically limited the economic and social opportunities for Jews. Following these laws a series of pogroms took place against the Jewish community.
When Murrow arrives in Buchenwald the conditions are dire within the concentration camp. There is a shortage of food and men must eat very small rations per day. Hundreds of men are dying by the day and thousands every month. During all of this despair, the German soldiers are well fed and healthy. In the concentration camp, Murrow encounters all different types of men. He encounters doctors, lawyers, shop owners, and factory workers. This shows that all socio-economic levels of Jews were persecuted and placed into concentration camps. Murrow is most disturbed by the physical condition of the men kept in these concentration camps. This can be inferred when Murrow describes how seeing dead men in war is not the same as the horrors he saw in Buchenwald. The most disturbing aspect of this story to me, is the part where Murrow describes the bodies stacked on top of each other in the courtyard.
When Murrow does not apologize for his story, his tone is very morbid. His tone is morbid because he has just witnessed some of the worst crimes against humanity in person.
Murrow is trying to argue that the way in which the Nazis treated the Jews is so horrible that it is impossible to accurately describe it. He wants listeners to be remorseful and respectful. I think he has achieved his goal because while listening to the broadcast it is impossible to not feel terrible about all the atrocities that occurred in concentration camps and it makes me want to pay respect to the victims of the Holocaust.
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The events in Germany beginning in 1933 led to the Final solution; after the the rise of Nazi power in Germany, the Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler started targeting the minorities in the population (Jews, Africans, homosexuals, Slavs.) in threat to opposition to the Nazi power. This movement exponentially resulted in exterminating Jewish population and communities, which in fact destroyed many Jewish businesses and millions of Jews and some were put in a concentration camps.
When the American troops and Murrow arrived in Buchenwald, the conditions were horrible; the concentration camp holding thousand of people in a very small amount of space (5 people to per bunk) , awfully limited amount of food supplies which some starved to death. Although Murrow saw this horrible condition, men in the concentration camp stated that the Buchenwald camps is way better than the other more terrible places. Murrow was shocked by the facts of of course the terribleness of the situation as well as the reactions of the people in the camps how they act not exactly but normally in such condition. I would be just scared and shocked to death if I was in the situation or just seeing all of the dead people and a condition like a living hell.
Murrow’s tone of his lines sounds very angry, mad, deep with sorrow. He states the thought that he won’t be sorry for his speech since people must know about the facts and importance of realization of terrible act across the world, to create justice against Nazi Germany.
Murrow as a journalist, sought of expanding the world news of incidents occurring in the society to everyone and make an argument was his job to do after seeing the devastated situation in Buchenwald. He tells his audience that the Holocaust is the worst possible thing one can ever think of as a person; the genocide of Jewish people in order to prove oneself right, ignoring the awfulness of the action, created tragedy.
He wanted to spread his thoughts and emotions to others, to understand the emotions of every everyone against this event. People go on rage with madness and sadness of this event of holocaust. Through his lines, he was successfully able to get people to acknowledge the things he has seen and wrote about, getting the public attention to the cause.
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The first factor that set up the final solution was the Nuremberg Laws. These laws strictly repressed the Jews from rights and values that they had previously had. This led to open discrimination and antisemitism in the every day life of Germans. When the government is openly advertising anti-Semitic laws, it is very easy for discrimination to become an every day part of life. The purpose of these laws (specifically the law that non-Jews and Jews cannot marry) was to keep a “master race” clean and not have any ethnic mixing. This mindset was the first step of discrimination, which lead to the “Final Solution” which was the opening of many extermination camps.
The conditions at Buchenwald were beyond the worst conditions one could be faced with, from no space for sleeping, to getting barely any food, and finally to the unimaginable unsanitary conditions of Buchenwald. Murrow described the prisoners as the walking dead, as many couldn’t move and were extremely ill. However, the factor that most likely surprised Murrow was how many people predominantly died from starvation in the camps. Sources talk extensively about the extermination camps, but the numbers showing how many people died from starvation are shockingly high. The starvation rate is also what shocked me the most.
Murrow delivered the line “if [he] has offended [them] by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, [he’s] not in the least bit sorry” with a tone as if he was rolling his eyes. Murrow stated this line as if what he wrote was nothing compared to what he actually saw, and if you couldn’t handle his writings, the truth would be unbearable.
Murrow wanted to make the argument that what happened at Buchenwald was not just murder but was tremendously inhumane. His argument was that the death toll does not come close to describing what it was like to be in a Nazi concentration camp whether it be Buchenwald or any other. Not only did Murrow do a great job at writing an account of what he viewed at Buchenwald, he also succeeded at expressing and defending his argument. This broadcast was an eye opener even to a student that has learned about the Holocaust before, and to an audience in his era it would be even more of an eye opener.
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I like how you described his tone, “as if he was rolling his eyes.” because this is an extremely accurate description. He felt unapologetic for the people who would be offended at his description of the camp and he wanted to hammer in the guilt that he meant to put onto the listener. It makes sense that his tone would be like this because he wants people to help those living in the horrible conditions and support all of the United States’ efforts in World War 1- so he inflicts a sense of guilt by implying that the listener is silly or rude for being offended by what they hear.
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After the Nazi rise to power, the “final solution” became the perspective of common German people, using the entire Jewish community as a scapegoat for economic issues. This unimaginable crime against humanity stems from German prejudice and events such as the Great Depression and World War I. After the disastrous decline of German markets and production, Adolf Hitler spread racism, hatred, and discrimination against the minority Jewish population and others.
In Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps, innocent people died by the hundreds weekly. Starvation, overworking, horrific living conditions, neglect, and extreme violence were commonly practiced, and led to literal piles of murdered individuals. Men that Murrow encountered were beyond weak and deprived of all necessary resources to sustain life. Murrow claims, “Death had already marked many of them.” I think Murrow believed the most shocking part of this tragedy was that right outside of the fence, men ate well and lived healthy plentiful lives, untouched by the plague of the Holocaust. To me, the most vivid and surprising detail is Murrow’s description of pale bodies that were stacked and piled up neatly.
At the end of the broadcast Murrow delivers an unapologetic and enraged tone, displaying his disgust of concentration camps. He wanted listeners to truly understand that prejudice and violence to such an extinct is completely intolerable, and should be stopped and never to occur again. I think his tone and word choice was very powerful and honest, and his argument was achieved.
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First and foremost, Hitler being “elected” wasn’t the best thing for minority races in Germany, as he believed in Social Darwinism (Aryans are great, everyone else should die). The murder of a German official by a Jewish teenager led to the Nuremberg Laws, which led the government to put out propaganda to make the Jewish look like the embodiment of evil, which led the German public to have contempt for the Jewish population, which led to them supporting the camps (which they thought were like protection resorts), which led to death and sadness. Also, the Nazis needed something (or someone) to blame for Germany’s losses during and after WW1, and an ethnic group you already dislike are great candidates for this.
The conditions in Buchenwald were pretty bad for the best concentration camp – cramped living spaces, measly amounts of food (not enough to sustain an 80-year old sedentary grandparent who’s hobby is watching old soap operas) hard labor that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger shed a tear, pretty much no medical aid for sicknesses (which ran rampant), don’t get me started on the human waste disposal system, and mass killings (not enough graves for it). Wait a minute, I just described middle school. Crazy how these things work out.
Murrow does not sound happy in the last line of the broadcast, in fact, he sound pretty angry. What else to say about this? Murrow’s angry, probably because he saw all of the horrors in the camp and is mad at the Germans for making these a reality, and he knows that the American public won’t believe what was going on in the camps at first.
Murrow isn’t really making an argument as much as he is just making a series of statements about the camps. He wanted the listeners to feel what the prisoners felt, making them know the camp’s terrible treatment of prisoners. He didn’t really want to make people believe something else as much as he wanted to hammer in the fact that concentration camps are horrible and shouldn’t be used ever. From listening to him speak and reading the transcript, he did a pretty good job telling the listeners about the horrors of concentration camps and making them feel like a prisoner, so yes, Murrow definitely accomplished his goal.
Lastly, isn’t this just a lovely topic? The death and torture of millions of people in minority groups really makes any day better.
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1) In Germany during 1933, Nazis began the Holocaust, which was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of around 11 to 17 million people. The people who were persecuted were part of groups that the Nazis deemed “inferior” or dangerous to the stability of the Nazi Germany, like Jews, communists, disabled people, homosexuals, etc. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed, which were anti-Semitic laws that severely limited Jewish peoples’ rights. Then, in 1938, Nazis began pogroms against the Jewish people, called Kristallnacht, in which many Jews were killed and Jewish businesses were destroyed. After the German invasion of Poland, ghettos were made for the Jewish people to live in, and had horrible conditions. Concentration camps were then created, which finally lead to the Final Solution, which was designed by Himmler to created extermination camps that would kill many people. These actions normalized discrimination by making it part of everyday life and people would eventually be desensitized towards discrimination of the Jewish people.
2) The conditions in Buchenwald were cramped in housing and the people there were thin, weak, and dying when Murrow and the American troops arrive. Murrow encountered a variety of men in the camp, from doctors, children, and others from a variety of occupations and ethnicities. I think Murrow was shocked at how many people died in such a short time, and how the prisoners praised President Roosevelt. I was most shocked that the prisoners knew of Roosevelt and what he had done while in the concentration camps in Murrow’s description.
3) Murrow’s sounds like he thinks that this mild account shouldn’t offend anyone and that if anyone was offended, then he didn’t care if they were.
4) Murrow is making the argument that what happened in Germany was terrible and nearly indescribable to people who weren’t there. He wants the listeners to feel sorry for what the people at the camp went through. Murrow also wants then to learn how terrible an event like this is and wants them to believe the horrors of what he reported. I think he achieved his goal because he vividly described what he saw and experienced and made me picture what happened, and convinced me that what he was reporting was real and terrible.
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1. The Nazis targeted minority groups that they saw as a threat, like Jews, Slavs, disabled people, black people, and homosexuals. At the end of WWII, war crimes, like those judged in the Nuremberg Trials included the Final Solution which was the Nazis way eradicating the Jews. The destroyed Jewish businesses and synagogues, killed thousands of people and forced Jews to live in ghettos, concentration and execution camps. These actions dehumanized the Jews so that people of Nazi Germany would be desensitized to the type cruelty being done to these peoples.
2. When Murrow and the American troops arrived at Buchenwald, the conditions were bad. There was a strong stench on entrance and lots unhealthy looking men and boys stood around. Murrow met diverse people in the camp from different backgrounds, such as a doctor from Vienna, a Polish professor, Germans, and Brits. I think this surprised Murrow because the people were diverse but still could relate to each other through being persecuted by the Nazis. What shocked me is how anyone was able to adapt and survive in such awful living conditions for more than a month, and definitely not a year.
3. Murrow sounds bold, confident and unashamed at his lack of apology. What he saw is not something that should be ignored or covered up. He is unapologetic about sharing such information, as he feels that it needs to be shared. He tried to be calm and keep from describing in depth, as to not shock the audience too much.
4. Murrow knew that there were many people who do not know all that is actually happening in Nazi Germany, so he used this broadcast time that he had to explain it, and make sure a feeling of disgust is left for anyone tuning in. He wanted to give support for the people that survived this treatment and to further hatred towards the Nazis. He gets this right as he goes into just enough detail to shock the people into paying attention, while still not making people so revolted they’d stop listening.
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In 1933, the Nazi party rose to power in Germany. Led by Adolf Hitler, the country grew a feeling of superiority over minority populations like the Jews, Slavs, Africans, and homosexuals. This racial superiority in turn caused the Nuremberg laws to be established in 1935. The Nuremberg laws were unfavorable against those of a Jewish background because these laws were limits established from a fear of a Jewish rebellion. Paired with concentration camps, these laws effectively put the Jews in dehumanizing positions. All of these early events led up to the Final Solution.
When Murrow and the American troops stepped foot into the Buchenwald, they immediately felt the horrible living conditions. Food rations, gruesome work, unbearable stenches, clustered space; living in a place with these characteristics must have been one of the worst camps there have been. In Buchenwald, Murrow met several other Jewish people. Each having their own, unique story with one commonality: their religion. When in Buchenwald, Murrow must have felt a jolt of fear. I know I would if I was in that situation. What shocked me the most was probably the pile of dead people that he described.
Murrow basically uses the statement to say that if you feel queasy about what he had described, then you are weak because it is nowhere close to how it actually felt. Murrow’s tone as he states this is sorry, but truthful.
Murrow shared his experience and tried to make it as relatable as possible. Even though it would be impossible to recreate a horrible environment like the camps in Buchenwald, Murrow dug as deep into his past as he could to share a piece of the trauma that he faced. I think Murrow did achieve his goal in telling such a gruesome story with little difficulty because he was able to make his words pop into my imagination in complete detail.
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There were many events happening in Germany in 1933 that led to the Final Solution. In 1933, when the Nazis rose to power, they began the Holocaust which was the systematic killing of eleven to seventeen million people. These people were considered inferior and a threat to the Nazi Party’s policies. Jews were the main targets of this genocide and over six million of them were killed in the Holocaust. Then, in 1935, the Nuremberg Laws, which were a collection of anti-Semitic laws, were established. These laws severely prohibited the rights of Jews. Then on November 9, 1938, the Nazis began a series of pogroms, called Kristallnacht, against the Jewish population. At least 91 individuals were killed, many synagogues were destroyed, and many homes were burnt down. After Germany invaded Poland, the Jews were forced to move to the ghettos, where conditions were terrible. The last event that led to the Final Solution was the concentration camps. The conditions in these prison camps were very harsh and about 3.5 million people died in them. All these events led to the Final Solution, which was the plan to annihilate the Jewish population of Europe. The purpose of all these events was to get rid of the Jews because they were seen as inferior and a threat. These actions normalized discrimination because they made it a part of daily living and they brainwashed people into believing that the Jews were the problem.
When Murrow and the American troops first arrived in Buchenwald, the conditions were terrible. The prisoners were very weak and thin, and many of them were on the verge of dying. The food was limited, the space was cramped, and it was very unsanitary. Murrow encountered a variety of individuals, such as starved children, an Englishman, Germans, former mayor of Prague, a doctor, a professor, and Czechs. I think that Murrow was most shocked by the number of children that died and were starved. His description of how he could see the children’s ribs through their shirts shocked me the most because it emphasized how harsh the conditions were.
Murrow’s tone when he delivers this line is confident and unapologetic. He states how he truly believes and he sounds very confident in his statement. He thinks that if anyone is offended by what he said, they have no reason to be and that they are weak.
Through this report, Murrow is arguing that the conditions he encountered in Buchenwald were very harsh and that people should be aware of how badly the people in the camps were treated. He wants his listeners to feel sympathy for what the people in the camps went through and he wants to make them cringe at the horrors of this event. He wants his listeners to believe the traumatic experience that he faced. I think that he achieved his goal because his descriptions of the horrors made me believe what he said about the conditions that the people in Buchenwald went through.
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All the events leading up to the Final Solution were all acts of discrimination and murder. The Holocaust for example was an act of genocide upon Jews, and other groups of people such as communists, Africans, and socialists. These actions became to be normal after the Nuremberg Laws were put in place because people began to see it as okay to discriminate and treat Jews poorly. They began to have little to no rights, and when they revolted during the Kristallnacht it began to see okay to kill them since it was the only sensible thing to do to bring peace. Other events during this time that led up to the Final Solution were the establishment of the first ghettos, where Germans concentrated the Jewish population, and the construction of concentration camps.
The conditions of the camp were very poor. Men were dying in large numbers everyday, in hundreds. People were dying of diseases, like tuberculosis, fatigue, starvation, or sometimes they took their own lives because the conditions were that unpleasant. Murrow encountered many people in there who were very educated such as professors and doctors. I feel like seeing the small children with numbers tattooed on them is what shocked Murrow the most because he made the very blank statement of, “They will carry them until the die.” What shocked me most was the fact that the cook said they were “efficient” yet people were still dying of starvation and other things in massive quantities.
This statement was very blunt. His tone was slightly surly, as he seems as though he has a hatred for the Germans for doing this. He was basically saying sorry not sorry, meaning he does not care about anyone else’s opinion on the matter because he went there with the intent of sharing his for all of those who will listen so that he could bring awareness to the poor conditions.
His goal was to bring awareness to the tragic conditions so that people would improve them and help the audience to feel the pain and struggle of the prisoners there so that they would not have to go through this struggle anymore. His is trying to argue that this is wrong and cruel and unusual punishment from the Germans. I do believe that he achieved his goal though because his descriptions were so raw and no one really believed conditions were as bad as they were, however he does evoke a sense of hope at the end as he talks about Roosevelt as a symbol of hope for the people in there so people outside know they too can help by uplifting Roosevelt as well and carrying out his beliefs.
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1. The events in Germany which led to the final solution were the hyperinflation and extremely depressed economy and the rise of fascism. People were looking for a scapegoat to blame for the loss of World War 1- a scapegoat. The Nazi Party targeted Jews, Slavs, and homosexuals, among other groups. The Nuremberg Laws began the official legal discrimination against Jewish people- restricting what they were allowed to do, and then a series of pograms caused an enormous amount of Jewish people to flee. Those that remained were placed in concentration camps- this was the “Final Solution”.
2. When Murrow reached Buchenwald, he was met with extremely harsh conditions beyond explanation. Death was rampant, starvation was the norm, and he repeatedly describes the awful stench of so many people packed together in such a small space. Murrow seemed most surprised by the small rations or the huge number of people that had already died. I was surprised most by the fact that there were so many children in the concentration camps, and that the Germans nearby were so unaffected by the horror they saw. It was also shocking that some almost seemed excited to see American soldiers, hopeful, and Murrow says that they were weak but they “smiled with their eyes.”
3. When he says he’s not sorry for offending anyone, Murrow’s tone was unapologetic, scathing, and reprimanding. He was shocked and unaware of the horrors of Buchenwald and he felt that others needed to be aware too, although his description was milder than the actual conditions.
4. Murrow is trying to make the argument that these people are being tortured and killed in the most horrifying way, and that someone needs to help them. He opens his wallet to see if he has any money to give them, and he wants to reader to feel the same way-willing to help contribute to the war effort and stop the genocide. He certainly achieved his goals in my eyes because the broadcast was easily understandable and painted the Germans as cruel and inhuman as well as giving the listener a sense of the horror without having to even go far into detail.
-Anna Manley
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In 1933, the Nazis came to power under Adolf Hitler. As more and more minorities were being executed and discriminated against, the Nazis felt that the “Final Solution” to get rid of them all was the idea of concentration camps. The purpose of these camps was to exterminate Jews, homosexuals, Africans, etc, in an attempt to create Hitler’s idea of a “perfect world.” Minorities who could not leave in time were sent to the camps or to ghettos.
The conditions of Buchenwald when Murrow and the troops arrived were, for lack of a better word, unpleasant. The men that Murrow encountered were starving, had terrible infections, some were thieves, many had no will to live, most could not even move, and the majority were just happy that help had arrived. Murrow was most likely shocked the most by the conditions and number of deaths. Because this had been going on for so long and these people were being tortured in unimaginable ways, Murrow was furious and astonished. I think what shocked me most was the things that Murrow left unspoken. He stated that many sights that he saw at the camp, he did not mention, and he refused to talk about the crawling men because of how he felt. The blanks, essentially, in Murrow’s broadcast were what shocked me the most.
Murrow sounds very angry. He sounds passive-aggressive. He’s not regretful for sharing the most mild version of the story of these people, and he wants to make people aware of these indescribable events.
Murrow’s argument is that Hitler, and the torturers of Nazi Germany and their actions were inhumane. How can so many people be killed and yet they feel no remorse whatsoever? He wants his listeners to feel his rage, to learn of this tragedy, and to believe that the Holocaust is immoral and no one should ever be okay with it. I definitely believe that Murrow achieved his goals. The way he described what he saw, his tone of voice, and his frequent pauses to stop and think made me feel more disgust than I already had towards the executors of Nazi Germany. Based on how I reacted, I am positive there are others who may have felt the same.
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1. An important event that lead up to the Final Solution was the Nazi’s rise in power. Adolf Hitler was anti-semitic and laws were put into place limiting there rights. Numberg Laws were also an another thing because it left the Jews open to prosecution in a way because they were being targeted and didn’t have rights. However Jews were the only people in the Holocaust it was also blacks , disabled people, slavic people ,and homosexuals. People who didn’t fit into Hitler’s scheme of the perfect persons.
2. People today would compare Buchenwald to hell. The living conditions were terrible. It was cramped spaces, disturbing smells, very small amounts of food, mass killing, and poor working conditions. Murrow met weak unhealthy men. Murrow was surprised at how many people were dead , dying and overall sick. What surprised me the most was the arrangement of the dead bodies , stacked neatly.
3. Murrow tone was insolent. He was not going to be sorry or feel bad for the things that he exposed. He feels that is needed to be shared , which I agree. Murrow attitude was that this information hurts someones feelings or they disliked that he talked about it , that he doesn’t care.
4. He wanted people to go against the Nazi and see the terrible things they were doing to people. He wants people to know the horrible things that happened in Germany. I think he accomplished that because even at all these years I still feel disgusted about the Holocaust.
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After the Nazi rose to power in 1933, the Holocaust, a genocide, began. There was an estimated death of 11 to 17 million people who were deemed inferior to the Nazi Power. Over six million of the murdered were Jews, but the Nazis also persecuted Communists, Slavic Individuals, Africans, the Disabled, Socialists, the Roma, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals. In 1935, a collection of laws, called the Nuremberg Laws, were passed; these laws made it legal and even encouraged to prosecute Jews. On November 9, 1938, the Kristallnacht began which were planned attacks by Nazis against the Jews. Persecuted Germans began to emigrate from Germany, with an estimation of 27,370 were Jews fleeing to the United States. In October of 1939, the first ghetto was created and Jews were moved to the location. Concentration camps were also used from 1933-1944 and over 3.5 million died in them. The Final Solution was a final elimination plan by the Nazis to kill all inferior Germans through the use of extermination camps.
The conditions in Buchenwald when Murrow and the American troops arrived were horrible. The camp was unkempt and unclean with poor sanitation. He encountered men who were starving and dying of diseases but there was still hope in there eyes. What i think shocked him the most was the amount of people dying in the camp and what surprised me was that he was surprised at the amount of suffering at the camps and was seemingly unaware.
Murrow’s tone when he delivers this line is sorrowful and sad but determined in his way to tell the people what happened at this camp.
Murrow’s argument is to tell the people the crimes that occurred in these camps were atrocious. That they were inhuman and disgusting. He wants the listeners to feel remorse and sorrow for the people in the camps and I believe he is right trying to do this. I believed he achieved his goal because there is no way he could have described these events in this way and not have gain symphony.
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1) The Nazi Party came to power in 1933. This led to the Holocaust and the discrimination and mass persecution of Jews. The Nazis began to use concentration camps which eventually lead to death camps.
2) The camps were horrible for the imprisoned Jews. Children and workers made up the majority of people. Murrow was shocked at how many men were dying in the camps. I am shocked by the fact that people thought this was the right thing to do.
3) Murrow seems to be straight-forward. He thinks everyone should know the condition of the camps.
4) Murrow’s goal was to build support for the people that survived this treatment and to further hatred towards the Nazis. He does his job as he goes into enough details to disgust the people listening.
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Alisha Pitts
Describe the events in Germany beginning in 1933 which led to the Final Solution. What was their purpose? How did these actions normalize discrimination?
The killings and brutal beatings of people Nazi didn’t not seem fit to live, the purpose was to stop those who weren’t “perfect” for recreating, only certain people were targeted.
What were the conditions like in Buchenwald when Murrow and the American troops arrive? What sort of men did Murrow encounter in the camp? What do you think shocked Murrow the most about the experience? What shocked you the most about his description?
There were multiple hurt men who were happy to see someone there to help, Mayor of Prague and Czechoslovakia, how someone could inflict this much pain on someone, how he refused to describe so images
At the end of the broadcast, Murrow tells his audience that “if [he] has offended [them] by this rather mild account of Buchenwald, [he’s] not in the least bit sorry.” What is Murrow’s tone when he delivers this line? (That is, how does he sound?)
His tone is angry and upset.
Murrow, as a journalist, believed that it was his job to make an argument– NOT to be a mere reporter of facts. What argument is he trying to make through this report? What does he want his listeners to feel, learn, and believe as a result of his work? Do you think that he achieved his goal? Why or why not?
He was trying to explain how horrible Germany was, he wants to explain how painful it was to see the images and how dirty Germany is, yes he describe just how horrible the sites were.
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